Go Viral With the Pay With a Like Plugin for WordPress

Even in this digital age where everything seems to happen online or on a device, social connections are still the most powerful way to reach people and spread the word. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our new Pay With A Like plugin for WordPress. This is a plugin that will instantly boost social sharing on your site and get people talking about your content.

How does it work?

The Pay with a Like plugin lets you leverage the power of social currency in order to give access to content or a download. You know your content is share-worthy, but how do you get those lazy visitors to take a minute to share with their friends? Make them pay with a Like on Facebook!

Content becomes visible after a user pays by sharing your post. And it’s not just for Facebook Likes – users can also pay with a Tweet, a Google +1, or a share on LinkedIn.

The plugin is also very easy to use. It comes with a built-in button to protect specific content within a post through use of shortcodes:

Of course, Pay with a Like is also fully compatible with WordPress Multisite if you want to run it on multiple sites across your network. You can even make it a premium upgrade for blog owners by using it with our excellent Pro Sites plugin.

Pay With a Like gets your visitors promoting your posts through major social media channels before they can have access to your exclusive content. Since social networking websites account for the largest amount of overall internet activity, your content will have the chance to spread like wildfire across the web. If your business model includes marketing of any kind, then this plugin can cut out the middle man and give your site the extra push it needs to go viral. Kickstart social sharing on your site today with the Pay With a Like plugin from WPMU Dev.

Isn’t this a violation of pretty much all SocNET’s TOSs? Granted, it will work if what you keep from your visitors is good enough, but still… Doesn’t seem right to me. Just wondering if folks might get themselves in a bit of trouble.

Just a follow-up. This is covered in several places within Facebook’s terms, but yeah… You probably don’t want to do this. One of several places Facebook addresses these limits is in their Platform Policies:

IV. Application Integration Points
You must not incentivize users to use (or gate content behind the use of) Facebook social channels, or imply that an incentive is directly tied to the use of our channels.

Within the same document, Facebook goes on to say:

V. Enforcement

We can take enforcement action against you and any or all of your applications if we determine in our sole judgment that you or your application violates Facebook Platform Terms and Policies. Enforcement action is both automated and manual, and can include disabling your application, restricting you and your application’s access to Platform functionality, terminating our agreements with you, or any other action as we in our sole discretion deem appropriate.

I’m pretty sure everyone else else covers this issue in about the same way.

I’m sure some networks simply haven’t addressed it, and even if they have, the net is pretty much the wild west. We all see all sorts of stuff every day that we probably shouldn’t. I just worry that things like this inevitably make getting good content noticed in a sea of noise even harder.

Folks are going to do this. Of course they are. But at what cost? The reality is that this probably isn’t good for anyone.

That being said, it’s out there for the world now. We’ll see how/if SocNETS adjust to the issue. I’m pretty sure they will, and if Google’s wild account closures and delistings are any indication there’ll be a massive cost to those that give it a go.

I am not sure if my visitors will appreciate this. I personally do not click on share or like buttons when they are required to access the content. I simply leave the page, and directly unfollow the creator of that content…

I agree with Jon 100%! This is a blatant violation of most social media terms of service. But even if it doesn’t violate the letter of the law it certainly violates the spirit. It’s manipulative and unseemly. I would stongly advise everyone to stay away from this kind of disingenuous nonsense.

Okay, the developer just posted to the plug-in forum with a good bit of information.

In response to my concern over account termination or TOS violations: “Impossible, simply because there is no Twitter or Google accounts connected to the buttons. This is also true for Facebook and LinkedIn. So how can they ban an account which doesn’t exist?

Cheers,
Hakan”

So this plug-in isn’t dependent on you having any social accounts. It is users that propagate content on their walls in an effort to gain access to your content. They’re not liking your pages, business or social persona… just your content.

As happy as I am that no one will suffer as a result of using this plug-in, I can’t for the life of me understand why WPMUDEV would promote the tactic.

It’s a personal choice, but I’m not looking forward to the day that Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are littered with this garbage. If stuff like this becomes a widely accepted practice SocNETs will have to defend against it, no? Am I missing something? It’s still SPAM, right?

I would agree that this seems to be a TOS violation, but what if you could read the first few paragraphs of text, and if more is wanted then you have to click the like button? Would this be a violation? I see it more as a subscription style incentive. This is what I was wanting to do on my site anyways.